Five Things to Do Before a Big Trip

Travel is fun, exciting, and even life changing. Being away makes you realize how wonderful home is as well. But if absence makes the heart grow fonder, why does being back home feel like such a drag? While I can’t wash all those travel clothes for you, I can give five tips to make coming home a little better.

Tip 1: clean your house before you go. After spending a week (or more) away, especially if you have been in a hotel where someone makes the bed for you, you just don’t want to come home to a dirty house. It’s utterly depressing. Cleaning the house or at least tidying makes home feel like home, and not a dump.

Tip 2: use one of the grocery store pick up services and set a pickup or delivery for the day of or day after you return, depending on when you get back. Getting home to an empty fridge often means takeout and delaying getting back to healthier eating habits. This is an easy way to restock the fridge while still get lagged.

Tip 3: Set up autopay for all your bills before you go. Who wants to come home to the lights turned off or payment late notices?

Tip 4: Alert your credit card companies and bank of your travel dates. Z. and I always pull cash out when we arrive at the destination airport. No money = big problems, and trust me, you don’t want to be trying to call your bank from your airport or hotel room. Learned that from experience.

Tip 5: Make sure you have the right adapters or converters. Dead phone and computer is a huge bummer. Additionally, buy an extra battery or bring extra chargers. More than once I have had a camera die on me mid-visit to some really cool place.